There is so much in this world that we have to learn, explore and see. This blog is an account of the beautiful world as I see it, explore it, and learn about it.
I left my wallet at home.. my wallet has my UCard which is my meal ticket and my entrance into the gym.. and basically everything for a U of M student... Also, my wallet has the little bit of money that I do have.. that comes in handy when I don't have my UCard.
Today is lovely. Just lovely.
Now, I have to go take a lab final that I'm pretty sure I'm going to fail.. so I'm feeling pretty crummy.
Rage Song time.. Hell yeah..
Enjoy my rage song that helps me to release my anger and attempt to move forward in a better mood.
Gives You Hell, by the All American Rejects.
reunited with my best friend (KAYLA, THAT'S YOU!!)
move home with my family
potentially a second niece
summer
I'm pretty excited. I only have 7 finals between now and then.. (HA.. only).. I promised pictures.. but you have no idea how awesome and exciting these pictures are. You might have assumed they'd be of my niece, but they are not. My mom bought me an awesome present that will provide hours upon hours of entertainment and distraction when I'm reaching my breaking point of stress.. are you ready?
Always Yours,
H.Eilene
P.S. Today's song is my favorite song by Maroon5... Payphone. Warning: there's some curse words
I get to spend this gloriously cold and rainy weekend with my lovely family. I'm pretty stoked to spend time with my sister and Violet and by brother-in-law.. and the rest of my family.
I promise to post more Monday :) Also... Just so you know... almost to 5k!! Keep coming back!!
I feel like I'm falling apart. I feel like everything around me is tumbling down this giant mountain, and it's gaining so much speed that if I even try to fix it, I'll just end up tumbling too. Today is one of those days. I don't know how to fix it, and I'm not sure why it feels like this.. the only thing I'm sure of, is that I really hate these days.
I don't get it.. It's sunny outside, which is usually something that puts me in a fantastic mood. Both of my morning classes were cancelled, also cause for fantastic moods... but as I'm sitting here doing laundry and homework, all I want to do is go back to bed and wake up in a another day, in another place.
Environmental Conservation and Dinosaurs were cancelled today, which gave me completely free time from 8am until 3:30 this afternoon to do homework and study for finals. Here's to productivity, and here's to these crumbly feelings going away...
.....are the three things I'm gonna need to get through these next two weeks. My big MASTER PLAN was to start the week out and make sure I went to every single class... that didn't happen. BUT...
I have a paper due Friday that I wrote yesterday. I have a paper due May 4th... and it's in the works.
Now, I have a better plan.
PLAN B:
get all homework done BEFORE going home.
This includes:
Chapter 16 (dinos)
Lab 9 (and 10 but that's not due for two weeks)
Chapter 13 (pgeo)
Study Guide (wrgeo)
Study Guide (pgeo)
Essay (rel)
Chapter 11 and 12 (wrgeo)
do laundry
go to all classes from now on..
I have an amazing professor for Environmental Conservation.. she's not a morning person, but our class is at 8am.. so she tends to skip the graphs and charts that are too complex for sleepy brains, such as the ones here in my notes.
Luckily, I had awesome teachers in high school that made these buggers easier to handle. Being that we had morning house, the complexity of the material really didn't matter if it was only 8am.
Who ever said high school didn't prepare you for college? Mine did.. just sayin'.
Always,
H. Eilene
I should have some fun pictures for this weekend since I'll be home with Miss Violet!
I'm a big fan of Panic! At the Disco, so check out their video below.. It's one of my favorite happy songs to do homework to. :)
Politicians. They're great at persuasion. They're great at blowing things out of proportion, starting wars between communities and they're great at attempting to get things done. I don't mind all politicians. I won't tell you who I'm voting for in the elections, and I don't dislike either candidate.. but there are things that politicians do that make me angry.
Let's face it.. politicians are often passing policies on matters that they don't have a solid background in, transportation, education and environment being three. How many politicians have worked for some transportation department? I'm pretty sure no one passing big time legislation worked for MNDOT... and how many politicians have a solid education on the environment? I mean, really.. how many people in general have a solid background in environmental studies and environmental science?
The man who worked passing policies on the natural resources for our country in the 1980s was quoted saying he was to carry out the Scriptures and occupy the land until his savior returned... and then later quoted saying "we will mine more, drill more, cut more timber". He was in charge of our NATURAL RESOURCES... the most valuable assets in the world... things that even now, are hard to manage and understand.. Why did he get fired? Was it his lack of dedication to the real problem? Was it his lack of background in the subject? Nope. It's because he made a very blatantly racial, sexist and derogatory (for other reasons) comment as to why a piece of legislation wouldn't get passed...
That.. that makes me angry. I'm not saying it's possible to solve all the world's problems by hiring qualified people into positions of power, but hey.. it's a start.
Go to the shore, take pictures on the rocks showing how you're enjoying the weather and explain the weathering process of the rocks...
We enjoyed the weather by going to Leif Erickson Park.
Miss Sarah enjoyed throwing rocks into the lake, Miss Sam enjoyed making footprints on the rock, and I enjoyed taking pictures of it all :)
Many of the causes of Climate Change are natural. Things we cannot reverse; things we haven't caused. Some of the other causes, are anthropogenic (human caused). There are a lot of things humans can do to reduce our "footprint", but there are somethings we cannot avoid. One of those unavoidable things is reducing our agriculture-related impacts on the planet.
This video is a TedTalk by Jonathan Foley, called "The Other Inconvenient Truth". Here he talks about how we, as humans, need to seriously change our farming techniques to farming for the planet, terraculture. He uses some really interesting computer models to depict his points, and I find this to be incredibly interesting. Somewhere around 13 minutes he starts a REALLY cool video with SUPER intense music. If you don't watch the whole thing, watch the last 4 minutes.
The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) described some of the scary impacts that will happen with the rising temperature of the Earth.. and to be honest.. they're kind of terrifying. Read it.. Seriously take a look. If you don't read it.. at least skim it. Look at some of the things we're going to have to face in the future.
How do we make changes to our behaviors.. when many of our behaviors are necessary? We COULD expand farm land... but we shouldn't. We COULD farm better.. but how many people are willing to cough up the cash to make the change? Maybe the better question is.. How much are we willing to put up with before we decide to make a change?
Let's be honest, society isn't making the best effort to make a change because most people refuse to believe something is happening.. but my fear.. my biggest fear.. is that by the time people are ready to admit what's happening.. our time will run out.
Well.. where did that week go?
So far this week:
Monday--
Slept through World Regional because I wasn't feeling well
Movie in Political Science on Civil Rights-- Freedom Riders (Excellent movie)
Double Lab in Phys Geo making up for the lab I was gone for (last Monday when I was being driven back to school by my awesome sister, brother-in-law and niece.
Tuesday--
Slept through Environmental Conservation (still sick and nothing going on)
Slept through Dinos (same)
Physical Geography-- watched a boring movie about Earthquakes before the test that was today
Wednesday--
World Regional: definitely brought my laptop and registered for classes while taking notes because my registration slot was at 9AM. My schedule is interesting..
Political Science.. I'm thinking we finished the movie? I didn't go.. This week isn't the best recorded week of my student determination.. but I promise it gets better.. and doesn't happen often.
Religions... got to class.. note on the door say to Have a great night and go enjoy the weather..
Thursday-- TODAY
Environmental Conservation was really interesting.. more to come..
Dinosaurs.. I went. I wish I had not. We got to talk about the KPCOFGS (Kingdom, Phylum, Class...etc) of dinosaurs and she talked to us about how her notes have been inconsistent.. but for the final we need to know them all for the dinos. Then, she continued to ramble about the final and Dino Biology (actually semi interesting) annnnd then we had a quiz.
Physical Geography Exam.. I am confident that I knew all but two of the questions on the exam... and those two.. I narrowed down to an almost positive answer. Best way to end a day of classes EVER.
Also, today we get to go sign for our rooms!! I'm wicked excited to get to sign up for an apartment with friends!
Environmental content to come within the next few hours... first, while I'm still motivated to do homework.. I'm going to finish my lab for Environmental Science (not conservation).
Meet Maki! This puppy is my favorite puppy in the world. Yesterday I drove ALLLLL the way out to Nebagamon to take this little guy out on a run. We ran somewhere between 6-8 miles. It was amazing!
The ice is out, which is pretty early. Not to mention it was 73 degrees outside! It was such a beautiful day!!
I was told I looked like I'm fourteen. I'd argue that that's not as exciting when you're.. ya know.. almost 19. I think when I turn 25 or 30.. I'll like being told I look like I'm 20.. but not now.. and NOT 14.
Had a case of the college blues today... and did nothing as far as homework goes... so I've watched a lot of Bones today.
1. I am a lucky girl. I have family and friends who stand beside me. I have a house and a job and a place to sleep. I am safe when I fall asleep at night, and I am lucky to have the opportunity to educate myself at this university where I am studying. I am lucky to have gone to high school and worked with the people I worked with, the opportunities I've had, and I'm lucky for the places I've been.
2. I love to write. I love to write fiction and poetry and non-fiction. I love to write because it helps me figure things out. Sarah Kay-- the speaker in the video-- says she writes poems to work through what she doesn't understand.. and I do it too. I write to figure out how I feel, how I want to grow and where I want to go. Maybe a reader can't see it from the things they read of my writing, but that's how it works for me. By the end of a story, maybe unrelated, but I know where I stand, and I know how I feel.
3. Ted Talks are awesome and distracting. I can't focus on that paper I mentioned yesterday because I'm too interested in listening to Ted Talks about Language. I've been on 55 words since 12:30 and I have about 500-550 words to go..
This is a Ted Talk by Sarah Kay. I like the first 8 minutes, but I love the rest of it too. She is amazing. Her words make sense to me. I like it a lot. I think you might too. Enjoy!
"If you tell me that I can do the impossible, I'll probably laugh at you."
Tonight I spent about 30 minutes wrestling with my broken can opener to open Spaghettios for my dinner.. Now, there are three possibly stupid things with this statement.. 1. 30 minutes.... 2. BROKEN?? 3. Spaghettios
1. Yes, I spent 30 Minutes because I was really hungry and determined to conquer the stupid can opener. 2. Broken... Why don't I buy a new one? ... because I'm a broke college kid who has 5 weeks left (and counting) in their first year in school... why on EARTH would I buy a new one when I'm going home soon.. where there's a not-broken one, AND an electric one.. 3. Spaghettios. Worth it? Definitely. Everyone loves to relive their childhood in a bowl of squishy O shaped noodles doused in some tomato-ey sauce. Less worth it when every bite burned a different part of my mouth.. but totally delicious and satisfying to my hungry belly.
Anything else special happen today?
Professor Pine moved a paper to Friday that was due today.. which is GREAT because I definitely hadn't started yet... oops.
I got to see my boyfriend! Always a plus.
I got Mine-craft.. A nerdy game where I get to build stuff... Don't judge. I'm in college.. I'm stressed... and it'll help de-stress me a bit.
SAD NEWS: I left my pink camel-back at home.. so I now don't have a water bottle. I've been debating buying a UMD water bottle.. because I don't want to spend money on individual bottles, and I don't want to waste the plastic.
Good News: My African Violet is coming back to life... funny how that happens when you water your plants... (oops) I'm being productive today! Time to get back to work!
22 SCHOOL DAYS LEFT!!! 30 DAYS TOTAL LEFT!! Happy Wednesday!
So, earlier I mentioned that we're down to five weeks. Now, that's pretty exciting.. until you factor in all that comes in the next five weeks..
My list so far:
Housing Lottery (Room Draw/Sign-Up) With-in the next four weeks leading up to finals, 10 exams Four Essays Two Projects One Speech News Presentation
and the most exciting (before summer..):
Miss McKenzie Rae will be born!!!
Then...
Come the Finals
Monday 5/7: Environmental Science
Tuesday 5/8: Life and Death of the Dinosaurs
Wednesday 5/9: Environmental Conservation (8am), Political Science (10am), World Regional Geography (2pm)
Thursday5/10: Geography of World Religions
Friday 5/11: Physical Geography
Friday, May 11th concludes the first of four (or five) years here at UMD.. and I'm scared, excited, anxious and a little sad to see it go. But, I can definitely say my second year up at UMD will be even better, because I get to room with my two best friends here at school.. and hopefully come to get to know Alex as well as I know and love Sam and Sarah. I can't wait.
But, that doesn't mean that summer shouldn't take it's time.. I'd prefer if it didn't fly as fast as the last three months.
Today marks the five week countdown until I'm home for the summer. I'm excited to go home to stay.. again, I know, worst college student ever. I'm in the process of applying for a new job, and I'm pretty stoked for if I get it, so keep your fingers crossed for me!!
I've just arrived back at school.. last night I went to see the American Reunion with my sister and her husband. It was quite hilarious, and it was a nice night out with them. I love that movie theaters are open on Easter... aside from Church and dinner there's not a whole lot to do. Then, Jen helped me with my taxes.. wicked exciting right?
Jen and Josh drove me back to school today with Violet, which was really nice. I enjoy every minute with her, and look forward to spending all summer with her :)
I don't have a lot to say today.. since I did just get back to school and Easter weekend was pretty chill. Here's a cool video/song and a picture.. I'll come up with more for tomorrow. Promise!
Lyrics from a beautiful song that came on my Relient K playlist on Pandora:
There's a raging sea
Right in front of me
Wants to pull me in
Bring me to my knees
So let the waters rise
If You want them to
I will follow You
I'm currently studying.. well now taking a break to write this, but I was studying for my World Regional Geo test tomorrow. The song is Let the Waters Rise by MIKESCHAIR. It's a great song. It's a Christian rock song/alternative and though I'm not huge into that genre, I've found that it's good study music. Certain songs like this one, just give you the motivation or confidence to keep going no matter how hard you want to stop.
I'm a Christian without an official denomination, and I don't preach about God, and I don't try to spread my beliefs because I know there are a lot of people who would stop listening to what I had to say. I won't hide it though. I will not walk away from my faith, but I also ask you do not walk away from me for sharing this song. It's a great song.
Today is THURSDAY.
I had Environmental Conservation (which I had to type three times before I didn't say Conversation) at 8am but, guys, I actually didn't struggle to get up for it!! And, last night I stayed up until 1-ish to finish reading for a quiz in Dinosaurs (which was my second class). I was a bad student though.. I may or may not have bolted out of the lecture hall after the reading quiz because I needed to get studying for my test tomorrow. It's far more important right now.
Tomorrow is FRIDAY. I only have one class tomorrow! Woot! But, it's an exam and it's 9am. Boooooo.
Following my exam and waiting for the rest of the carpool to complete their classes... I get to GO HOME!!!!!!!
I'm including the Youtube Lyrics video for the song I mentioned in the title, with the lyrics and so on. Take a listen, it's pretty, somewhat upbeat, and if you're into the message of following God, it's up your alley, and even if you're not.. it's still a great song.
Today is Wednesday. Normal Wednesdays I have two classes, World Regional Geo at 9am and American Politics at 11am. Today, my 9am was cancelled. So I only had class at 11. Friday (which has the same schedule) my 11am is cancelled. So, after my exam at 9, I'm officially free for the weekend!!
The Sun is out and shining... there's not a cloud in the sky. I have the desire to hop on a bus and go to the lake walk, but I feel like I'll get lost on the way back, so I won't. But, soon I will go down to the lake and take some pictures of the beautiful Lake Superior for all of the awesome people who read this day after day.
This weekend is Easter and I'm excited because apparently my favorite aunt (is that okay to say?) is coming from Washington! I know she'll be busy visiting with the grandparents (her parents) but I am excited nonetheless, because she's the best aunt ever. She's fun and nice and treats me like an adult, and she's just overall really awesome. She's incredibly athletic, she climbs mountains, she runs, and does really awesome adventurous things, and I just really love to hear her stories.
Another really awesome part of this weekend is that my sister is going to bring me back to school Monday, so that I can actually take part in our Easter dinner, which is my favorite holiday meal. Otherwise, I'd be missing my favorite meal and headed back to school Sunday with my normal ride (boyfriend). I'm excited, because it means I get extra time with my family.
I realize this means I'm a terrible college student: I like being home too much. It's not my fault. I promise. It's the adorable little niece who makes me so homesick when I'm gone. I just want to be able to have her cuddly little hugs all the time. My favorite thing is when she digs through her toy basket (now an adorable bench) and pulls out a book, sets it in front of you, and says up. Then, you read, to her and she loves it. I love it.
Always, H.Eilene
Enjoy this lovely song by Chris Rice, Here Come Those Eyes.
I've recently realized that I actually love all of my classes, except for one. Unfortunately, the one class I dislike is the one I looked forward to most. Dinosaurs. You'd think it'd be awesome eh? Dinos are SOOO COOL.. but learning about the bones and skeletal features that make them a specific type of Dinosaur is not so cool. Like, I don't care so much about which digits they don't have or that are pointed in a certain direction. I like the information about how they relate to species today-- like some of the Ornithichians that had bodily movements similar to the ostrich or emu today... that's cool. I also think it's interesting that they were commonly feathered, like not just bird-like species.. a lot of dinosaurs had feathers. That's cool.. but most of the stuff I'm learning, is boring to me.
In case you haven't guess.. I'm in my dino class... I've done homework for other classes so far and have run out of things to do. I guess I can take some notes :/
Always,
H. Eilene
